I'm on a campaign, along with daughter and sil (who are masters in the art!) to buy as little as possible, and most particularly, not to buy something if I can make it. I have a couple of brilliant books which help, notably "Precycle" by Paul Peacock. It's partly to save money and partly to cut down on - well, just "stuff" I suppose. The constant pressure to be good little consumers, and keep buying more and more. When I married and went to the US in 1994, I found that nobody really baked from scratch. There were all these cake mixes - recipes would actually list "one box yellow cake mix (or white/chocolate)" as an ingredient! Here, you couldn't even get such a thing! But now, we have a generation that doesn't recognise food in its natural state.

So, I suppose I'm just getting back to my normal (before my husband's illness took over our lives) cantankerous rejection of the pressure for rampant consumerism!

In pursuit of this, and my not wanting to buy anything I don't need or can make, I've got a slow cooker of baked beans in tomato sauce going, which I will divide into containers and freeze, and I've made a batch of (if I do say so) delicious oatmeal biscuits. With no refined sugars as refined sugar triggers my migraines. Instead, I used coconut blossom sugar and barley malt extract instead of golden syrup. Lunch was homemade bread and soup, and I just had a sandwich for tea (and a biscuit!).

All money saving or make do and mend tips, and of course, thrifty recipes, welcome here!

You'll be knitting dish clothes next. I'm all for make do and mend, we're such a throw away society now. Especially when it comes to electronics, no one repairs just replaces.

Exactly, Bigjim! We have been conditioned to throw things away and replace them. I know people who, every year, get a new artificial Christmas tree, and a whole new set of decorations for it. Because now we have been told, our tree decorations have to have a theme, a colour scheme! This year it might be red & gold, next year it could be lilac & silver, another year it could be black & white. It's crazy consumerism.

I know what you mean. I've never owned a car and have always been perfectly happy to use public transport and the occasional taxi. But when I say this to people they look at me as though I'm mentally retarded.
I reckon 'greenism' is often just a fashionable pose as opposed to a lifestyle choice.
If I hear one more person say that they have to have a car because there is no adequate public transport then I'll consider murder. Why move there then. That would be like me complaining that there are no cinemas, theatres or leisure centres on Fetlar.

It would be nice to do without the car. But for me, to get to my mum or to work (I only work 4 hours a week), by public transport, would take almost three hours (it's 19km), on two buses, and cost about €13 return! And there isn't a bus between here and Tramore, where I would go most often. I'd have to go to Waterford first, and then get another bus. Of course, one of the main problems here is that a lot of the larger shops have moved out of town! So, even if you could get a bus in, you'd then have a walk of a couple of miles to get where you wanted to go! I suspect many a Council has regrets about that. The place where I get the sacks of chicken feed, for example and bedding etc., is about 1 1/2 miles out on the outskirts, among all the car dealerships. So, I compromise, by doing several things when I go in. Thursdays, for example, I go to work for the morning, then take mum to the bank, and to do her shopping etc. I got myself a bike a few years ago, with intentions of cycling to the village occasionally rather than driving. However, the traffic on the road is so bad, that I found I was terrified! And I also found that my balance is not great! The bike is huge, with large wheels. I'm wondering if I would manage a smaller bike. Something like one of the old Triumph 20s, like I had when I was a teenager!! I can easily walk to the village, it's 2 1/2 miles. But it does take a lot of time to get there and back!

If I hear one more person say that they have to have a car because there is no adequate public transport then I'll consider murder. Why move there then. That would be like me complaining that there are no cinemas, theatres or leisure centres on Fetlar.

Then you would have to consider murdering me Hen-Gen. I live about 3/4 mile from the railway station, but it goes north/south which is absolutely no use when travelling east/west. The station in Shrewsbury is about 3 miles from where I need to go. There is a bus service to Shrewsbury but it takes over twice as long as traveling by car, and you're limited to what you can carry.

However I bought this house because it is near a rail route and I can walk to the local shops but, and it's a big BUT i would not be able to take part in any of my social activities without a car. Even if there is a bus service during the day to the various villages where I attend choir practices, no way would there ever be a bus back at 9.30 or 10pm.

Conversely I get very annoyed with politicians and other people who bang on about using public transport. I can visit my sister by train but she has to collect me from a station up the line or down the line. The train goes through her village but the station, from where I could easily walk to her house, has been closed.

We have friends who buy new tree decorations every year, because a colour of theme is the "in" thing. We have decorations lovingly handed down from grandparents, mostly Austrian glass, including birds with spun glass tails bells with little clappers. These are all carefully wrapped in tissue paper and packed away. Some are 100 years old now.
Thats the trouble with public transport it doesn't always fit in with your social life, so you have no choice but to use your car
people think OH is mad as she uses public transport, but it is free on my company's buses obviously, and on transport from London it's free from 60 and that includes trains in the area. The nearest buses to us are a 40 min walk away and are every 15 mins.

Being brought up during and after WW2, I had 'make do and mend' instilled from birth, and some habits are hard to break. I still hoard little bits of string and also the other shoelace which hasn't broken, I undo nice wrapping paper very carefully and save it when possible, and use the soap down to the last sliver, although I don't still have a Soapy Joe to mould the bits into a multi-coloured ball for re-use. I can still remember the humiliation of the swimsuit my mother made for me out of an old woollen vest, lovingly embroidered with coloured circles, which sagged around my knees and revealed what would one day be my tits, at its first outing to swimming lessons with my school class.